Yellow Card has raised $40 million in new strategic equity financing, taking its total equity funding above $120 million as the stablecoin infrastructure provider accelerates expansion beyond Africa into Latin America and Asia-Pacific.
The latest investment round includes SC Ventures, the investment arm of Standard Chartered, Sony Innovation Fund, Polychain Capital, Blockchain Capital and other strategic investors. Yellow Card has not disclosed which investor led the round or the precise ownership terms.
The company said the new capital will support the expansion of its Global USD Accounts product, strengthen stablecoin payment rails and increase local currency coverage in additional markets. The funding represents a significant step in Yellow Card’s shift from a retail-focused cryptocurrency platform to a business-to-business infrastructure provider serving banks, fintech companies and multinational enterprises.
Funding supports international expansion
Yellow Card said the financing will help it extend its infrastructure across Latin America and Asia-Pacific, while deepening its established presence in Africa. The company already holds licences, authorisations and registrations in 22 jurisdictions across North America, Europe and Africa, according to its announcement.
The firm plans to use the funds to develop local payment rails and support more currencies in the regions where it is expanding. These rails are intended to allow businesses to move between stablecoins, US dollars and local currencies without relying exclusively on traditional correspondent banking networks.
Yellow Card’s Global USD Accounts product provides businesses with a single account through which they can hold US dollars, hold and exchange stablecoins, manage treasury operations, and collect or disburse local currencies through domestic payment systems.
The company said the product can support payments in more than 50 countries and more than 50 currencies. Existing customers include major financial services companies such as Visa and Western Union, while Yellow Card also identifies Mastercard, PayPal and Coinbase as strategic partners.
The latest funding is designed to make the service available to more businesses in Latin America and Asia-Pacific. Yellow Card said Sony Innovation Fund’s participation will help it deepen its reach in Asia-Pacific, where demand for faster cross-border settlement and digital-dollar access is increasing.
Investor confidence in stablecoins
The investment reflects growing institutional interest in stablecoins as a payments technology rather than solely as a cryptocurrency trading instrument. Stablecoins are digital assets designed to maintain a relatively stable value against an underlying asset, most commonly the US dollar.
Their use in cross-border payments has attracted attention because transactions can be settled on blockchain networks, potentially reducing the time and cost associated with conventional international transfers. However, the infrastructure required to convert stablecoins into local currencies, connect them to banks and meet regulatory requirements remains complex.
Alex Manson, chief executive of SC Ventures, said stablecoins’ adoption would depend on “robust infrastructure and clear real-world utility.”
“Yellow Card is building those rails for businesses across Africa, enabling them to access and move value efficiently across markets,” Manson said. He added that SC Ventures believed the company was well positioned to scale across Africa and beyond.
Austin Noronha, managing director of Sony Ventures-US, said Sony Innovation Fund was investing across the Web3 technology stack and viewed Yellow Card as an infrastructure layer for emerging markets.
“By combining robust APIs, deep local fiat rails, institutional-grade security, and a strong regulatory-first approach, Yellow Card is making stablecoin-powered payments practical for banks, fintechs, and enterprises,” Noronha said.
He added that Yellow Card’s expansion beyond Africa into Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific aligned with the fund’s interest in the development of digital financial infrastructure.
Yellow Card co-founder and chief executive Chris Maurice said the financing represented confidence in the infrastructure the company had developed. He said the company’s larger opportunity was connecting banks directly to stablecoin rails.
“When institutions plug into this infrastructure, they’re not just modernizing payments, they’re unlocking dollar access for millions of businesses that traditional correspondent banking has left behind,” Maurice said.
From retail exchange to B2B infrastructure
Yellow Card was founded in 2016 by Maurice and chief technology officer Justin Poiroux. It launched commercially in Nigeria in 2019 as a retail cryptocurrency exchange intended to simplify access to digital assets and cross-border payments across Africa.
By 2022, the company had expanded into 16 African countries and reported more than one million customers. Its business strategy subsequently changed as it focused increasingly on institutional clients and infrastructure services.
FinTech Futures reported that Yellow Card moved away from its retail application in late 2025 to concentrate exclusively on business-to-business infrastructure. The company now provides services to financial institutions and global payment companies seeking access to stablecoin liquidity, local payment systems and foreign exchange capabilities.
The shift places Yellow Card in a competitive sector that includes stablecoin issuers, digital-asset payment platforms, banks and specialist cross-border payment companies. Its proposition is based on linking blockchain-based dollar instruments with local banking and payment networks.
Yellow Card said it has facilitated more than $10 billion in transactions across its network. It supports over 50 currencies and operates under regulatory permissions in 22 jurisdictions, although the specific permissions and scope of activity differ by market.
Funding history and valuation
The $40 million strategic round builds on Yellow Card’s earlier financing. Blockchain Capital led a $33 million Series C round announced in October 2024, with participation from Polychain Capital, Third Prime Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, Block, Galaxy Ventures, Blockchain Coinvestors, Hutt Capital and Winklevoss Capital.
The company also raised $40 million in Series B financing in 2022. Together with earlier rounds, the latest transaction takes Yellow Card’s total equity financing to more than $120 million.
CoinDesk reported that the company’s valuation is significantly higher than the more than $200 million valuation attributed to it in 2022, but remains below $1 billion. The report said the valuation information came from a person familiar with the matter. Yellow Card chief executive Chris Maurice and the company’s public relations team did not confirm the valuation.
The lack of a disclosed lead investor and detailed valuation terms means the precise financial structure of the round remains unclear. Nevertheless, participation by Standard Chartered’s venture arm and Sony Innovation Fund provides a notable institutional signal for Yellow Card and the wider stablecoin payments market.
Banks and blockchain payments
Yellow Card’s expansion comes as banks and payment companies assess whether blockchain networks can improve international settlement. Maurice said the company was working with commercial banks to use stablecoins to move dollars across borders and reduce reliance on legacy payment systems.
“The very near future state for this industry is one where payments flow directly between banks onchain,” Maurice told CoinDesk, referring to the settlement of transactions on blockchain networks.
That model could give businesses faster access to dollar liquidity, particularly in markets where conventional banking relationships are expensive or difficult to establish. It also presents regulatory and operational challenges, including customer due diligence, sanctions screening, transaction monitoring, safeguarding, licensing and the management of foreign-exchange risk.
Yellow Card’s stated “regulatory-first” approach will therefore be important as it enters additional jurisdictions. The company will need to adapt its products to local rules governing digital assets, payments, money transmission and stablecoins.
For now, the new funding gives Yellow Card additional resources to expand its local payment connections, currency support and institutional customer base. Its progress will depend on whether it can turn those investments into reliable cross-border infrastructure while maintaining regulatory compliance across a growing international footprint.